Nai'a Slide

Hello, here's another daily report of a day in Hawaii. Joseph went on a jog along the shoreline walkway, then came back for breakfast. I was at the table helping the girls with homework. (this is at 8 am mind you! Look at us getting up early and being productive first thing, wow!) 

Natalie looked at Joseph and said "Can we do the thing?" and then they did a little flip around move that Joseph learned back in 9th grade ballroom. Natalie loves it, and Joseph said she doesn't really well locking her legs around his arm. He always admired the girl dancers that could hold on like that.

Daniel wants a turn, Joseph tried - "Sorry! It doesn't work with floaties on!

Owen and Daniel had floaties on cause we were going to go to the pool, of course. The kids finished work and then we went to the Nai'a pool for our 9:30 reservation. 

Last night Corey said he saw people going down the slide, so we went over at 5:00 and it was still closed! I asked, and they said it's open from 9:30-4:30. So we were sure to make a reservation today so they could go down the slide. Natalie at the top, then Sophi, then Lily, waiting for their turns...

Natalie coming down...

They love it!

Going up again and again - 

So they had fun on the slide. You have to be 48 inches tall OR able to swim without floatation devices, so hat was too bad for Owen and Daniel. They got to watch from a distance. Hyrum kept them company. (He didn't want to go on the slide)

I kept Peter company. He was ready to swim, but mostly stayed by me this time. I love taking selfies with my cute Peter!

And picked the flowers...

Hyrum saw us walking over the bridge - "Peter! Come swim with me!" Peter tried to climb through the bridge railing -

Hyrum tried to jump up... it was all in vain. It was too high for Hyrum to reach, and Peter couldn't fit through the cracks to go down to him. I guess we'll have to walk around...

Yay, pool time for Peter. 

The girls social distancing in the slide line again. 

Ethan was supposed to have p-day yesterday, but it was today instead because transfers are this week. He is going to a new area and will have a new companion and was a bit worked up with concern about what would happen to all the people that he was leaving and what it will be like where he's going and how much he'll miss the missionaries he's been working with there in Frontenac. Transfers are a time of mixed emotions. All of that being forefront in his mind helped it so that he wasn't too sad about missing this vacation with us. He could appreciate what a blessing it was for his siblings, and encouraged them to take advantage of it. Joseph showed him the view from his balcony, and Ethan could see the view from behind me at the pool. "That is amazing! That's so nice! I can't believe you guys are in Hawaii!!" He took us outside the church to show us his view... top right corner... (he's so funny)

"That's a nice parking lot, Eth!" I listened to Eth and Corey talk while I updated their mission blogs (Mel's yesterday and Ethan's today) and watched kids as they jumped forward and fell back into the pool. 

Daniel does a forward flip into the pool that is pretty adorable to watch. 

Hyrum playing peek a boo with Peter - 

So I didn't get in and swim with them today, I just watched them for two hours. We ended our call with Ethan, went back to the room for lunch, then went back out to the pool (we are able to make 3 reservations cause we have 3 rooms). Ethan called again a few hours later, and I was still at the pool. "It doesn't seem like you've moved much since last time we talked." Yeah, I'm still here. I did make some bird friends...

I brought back all the bread crusts from lunch that the kids didn't eat. I threw some of the crumbs towards the kids in the water so they could see the birds up closer.

I guess that should be enough photos of the pool for today.

We are at a very beautiful location and life seems calm and wonderful, and this too shall pass. I hear that positive covid cases back in Utah were almost 5000 on Saturday and have averaged 3000 a day this past week. So that's sucks, and that too shall pass.

We will enjoy this escape from the world while we are here. 

This after noon around 4, Corey and Joseph and Wes took off to go to White Plains to try out Wesley's boogie board that a fellow Marriott resident gave him in the elevator. "Do you like this? It's not mine, I just found it... you can have it if you want..." And just like that Wes had a boogie board. Corey told Wes that if he stayed and finished all his work today that they'd go somewhere to try out his board. So they went there and left without us cause it would be too dark if they waited for the rest of us to get out act together. The girls did homework, and I took Sophi, Owen, Daniel, and Peter on a walk to the reef. I left my phone so that the girls could use my internet hotspot, so I didn't take any photos of our walk, but it was really cute and fun and I'll try to recreate it before we head back to Utah. We found lots of cool rocks and they filled the little blue bucket well past capacity. Peter was mad for a moment when I dumped it all (to make room for the rocks that I found, haha, mine are better). Maybe we'll made some sculpture from them or something after we get back home. Or maybe we'll collect new ones if we all go out there together. We might go get a family photo taken before Joseph leaves on Thursday, we'll see.